Aliens Versus Predator: Chimera
by ED209
Summary: The towing vessel Prometheus hung in orbit around the Jungle Planetoid Marcoma. The Alpha Salvage craft slowly made its way toward the stricken ship to search for survivors. Their actions would restart an epic battle that lay dormant for eleven years.
1. Introduction

Introduction 

The year is 2186. The Weyland-Yutani corporation hold major contracts for urban pacification, core systems mining, rescue and salvage and most importantly, planet terraforming and colonisation.

The incident on LV426 where the entire population of the Hadley's Hope colony perished was now consigned to the ancient history category and most people weren't even aware of the existence of the derelict ship that had been found all those years ago. That ship now sits in a hangar in Weyland-Yutani's investigation centre. After the blast explosion ravaged most of LV426, a team was sent to evaluate the damage. They found the alien derelict slightly scorched but intact. The contents of the ship had been vaporised by the blast. No organic life could have survived. The Alpha rescue and salvage team transported the derelict vessel, affectionately nicknamed "The Boneship" due to its skeletal appearance.

In 2175, eleven years before the start of this story, a group of colonists attempted to seize control of the entire complex on the planetoid Marcoma. They situated themselves in a camp a few miles outside of the colony and staged regular raids on the mining and delivery craft that frequented the city. The colonisation committee decided enough was enough and enlisted the aid of the Colonial Marine Corps to restore peace to the planet. A fierce battle ensued and the rebels were easily pushed back by the marines.

Three weeks later, the entire camp of rebels was found dead, badly mutilated. Situated around the camp were the remains of several marines. Only one soul survived the onslaught. Major Aaron Kelly. He had managed to escape with his life but sustained massive injuries. As the only witness alive to tell the story of what happened, he was returned to the colonial marine headquarters and interrogated. Once they had finished with him they reassigned him to a training camp. He was to live out his remaining career time as an advisor and mentor to rookie marines.

The Marine commission closed the file on the case but Weyland-Yutani maintained a significant presence on Marcoma.

It was far from over.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One - Prometheus 

The faded and failing floor lights cast the enigmatic silhouette of many years against the steel floor of the battle-worn corridor. There were no signs of life. Screens fitted onto the wall that originally supplied a warm glow and fountains of information now sat black and blank without a purpose. There was an almost eerie sense of tranquillity here as the only sounds to be heard were the faint hum of the air ventilation system and in the background the roar of the ship's colossal engines that, due to their distance from this corridor, were only just audible. At one end stood the hatchway into a second complex. The screen at the side of the hatchway started to glow as text and numbers danced across it causing a green tinge to appear across the cold steel walls. The screen flashed its approval and the hatchway lazily moved aside.

The calm was suddenly broken as a figure burst through the open hatchway. He couldn't glance back to check the distance between him and his pursuer, doing so would cost him a good few seconds and he needed every last one of them. Besides, he didn't really want to know. As he launched himself round the next corner he found his progress was marred by an extremely sturdy blast door. The main power was out, auxiliary power was barely managing to keep the lights on, and he wasn't going to risk opening the door if it meant he had to face this nightmare in the dark. He sank back into the corner of the doorway and readied his pulse rifle. He waited for the slightest sign of movement.

"Come on"; he muttered under his breath; "let's see you".

Shadows flickered across the reinforced steel walls of the corridor and were occasionally forced to recede by the flash of the overhead emergency strobe lighting. Then came the faintest scrabbling sound of metal on metal down the corridor from where he had just been.

"Let's end this" his voice was so quiet it was barely a whisper.

He slowly rose to his feet and made his way to the corner. As he rounded the corner he noticed a shape in the darkness at the far end. It was looking for him. As he brought his rifle to bear on the mass in the distance he heard a shuffling sound from behind. He froze, it was too late. A green flash launched from the muzzle of a cannon and hit him square in the back; he dropped to his knees and waited for the inevitable.

The corridor flooded with bright light. A large man filled the corridor with a low-yield plasma cannon slung over his shoulder, it was Major Kelly.

"What the hell was that? Damn it, you're wasting my time with this horseshit! Plaskitt, get your ass off the floor and talk to me!"

Plaskitt uneasily lifted himself up onto his feet. He turned to face Major Kelly. Plaskitt was tall and broad, built like he was meant to be a soldier but even he was dwarfed by the sheer size of Kelly.

Kelly was easily over 7 feet tall and Plaskitt suspected that when making Major Kelly, God had accidentally used blueprints for some sort of tank. His face was covered in the scars he had collected during his many fierce battles.

"Well Plaskitt, You've ruined my afternoon. I've now got to call your folks and tell them that you're dead" His voice matched his build: large and gruff. The playful tone in his voice was very hard to trace.

"Sorry Sir, I didn't think…"

"You didn't think that enemies can traverse air vents? You didn't think to check your six before advancing? Or you just didn't think?"

Plaskitt squirmed. He knew this was coming. "All of the above, sir!"

Kelly smiled and rubbed his thumb across his scarred chin.

"Figures. You'd better go look for your fallen comrades. If I remember rightly, Lee was zeroed in the stairwell and Goodson is crying like a baby in the med lab"; Kelly's grin stretched even further as he leaned to Plaskitt and whispered; "I think he might have taken exception to my creative use of the shock gun."

Plaskitt nodded, snapped a salute and turned to find the others as Kelly gestured to a group of nervous rookies for them to make their way to the training zone. Plaskitt was starting to wonder whether he was Marine material. It was apparent that he wasn't a natural and although he could hold his own in a simulated exchange he was more than aware that real fire fights were a completely different ball game. He couldn't imagine being as badly injured as Kelly had been and yet be as capable as he is at simply shrugging it off. The only scars he seemed to be bothered about were the slash marks to be found on his chest. Two perfectly straight lines, equal measure apart and done with something so sharp that it equalled a laser scalpel for its cleanness. Whenever they; or the place he got them were mentioned he would either change the subject or simply stop talking. There were rumours amongst the other soldiers that the marks were proof that he had removed his heart and sold it to the devil, Plaskitt could see the reasoning behind that.

Major Kelly simply refused to die.

After days of searching the outer rim, the Alpha team had finally found the source of the emergency transmission. The Alpha boarding craft was now slowly making its way to the stricken towing hulk that was hanging in orbit over the expanse of jungles what comprised the surface of Marcoma, one of the five moons that circle the vast planet of Giger79. Corporal Barker stood surveying the wreckage on the navi-comp's viewscreen.

"This doesn't look good. We're gonna need full space gear, looks like a hull breach. Wren, you picked up any signs of life yet?"

Wren looked up from the complex arrangement of screens and lights, "scanner is showing only one active PDT. Suggests one survivor."

Wren looked uncomfortable; "Sir, Can I suggest that we send a probe into the target first. Just to check structural integrity?"

Barker spun round to face Wren. She had only been part of Alpha for the length of this mission. She still smelled of the academy. Barker usually had little to do with the rookies; they either slowed you down or got you killed. Wren was different, she had real potential. Barker gave her an approving nod. "Make the call"

The probe slowly made its way to the airlock on the portside of the immense vessel. As it neared the doors, the guidance lights on the side of the lock started to glow.

"Well I'll be", mumbled Barker, "they still have power. Wren, try hailing them. They might still have comms."

Wren pushed a sequence of keys on the console in front of her and engaged the ship's radio.

"Towing vehicle Prometheus, this is rescue unit Alpha. Designation three-seven-five-niner. Do you read?"

Wren shook her head, "nothing sir, the ship's computer isn't even responding to pings"

Barker clasped his hands behind his back and turned again to face the viewscreen. The probe was now entering the airlock and scanning the structure to ensure that it would support the weight of the boarder and its crew.

Wren read the data being transmitted by the probe, "All looks clear sir, in fact, the computer on the Prometheus managed to isolate the breach to sublevel three so the rest of the ship has air."

"Excellent, I'll inform the away team"

Barker entered the cargo bay to find the five members of his salvage team busying themselves with prep work and routine checks.

"Ok boys, finish off preparations and stand station. We go for a walk in fifteen. Van Lopik, are the environment suits ready? The readout says we have air but I don't want to risk it."

"All ready and waiting, sir", Van Lopik snapped a salute.

Van Lopik was the senior salvage technician of Alpha unit. Without him and his four counterparts, Astin, Bailie, Hindle and Jones, the chances of survival for anyone in the stricken ship would be slim.

Bailie raised his hand, "Sir, are we likely to meet any resistance on this boarding?"

Resistance often occurred on these missions. Sometimes it was a survivor that had been driven insane or, more often, the ship's defences malfunctioning and registering them as intruders.

"Doubtful. One registered survivor, the ship's got power but seems to be crippled. This should be a walk in the park"

The team donned, secured and tested their environment suits and filed into the airlock.

Lee sat and watched with amusement as Goodson waited for the med technician to return and discharge him. He gestured to Goodson.

"The Major took me down pretty hard. My head's still sore. But what he did to you. Man that had to hurt."

Goodson eyed him with distain, "That's just bollocks. I bet he really got a kick out of that. Sick bastard"

The med technician returned to the lab and handed Goodson his discharge card

"Okay, private Goodson, you're good to go. I suggest you wear loose fitting underwear for a while and try to avoid long periods of sitting down". The technician suppressed a smirk.

Goodson snatched the card, gave thanks and painfully made his way out of the lab followed by an extremely amused Lee.

"Hey, come on man. I thought you English were all Stiff upper lip types"

"Lee. You're my friend. But if you open your mouth again I swear I'll rip your dick off."

Lee started to open his mouth but sense finally kicked in and he changed his mind. As they opened the door to the residential quarters they were met by Plaskitt.

"Are you guys okay? I heard you got it pretty rough this time."

Lee smirked, Goodson glared at him and followed with, "nah, its all part of the job. Could be worse"

"I don't see how it gets much worse than an ass full of elect…" Lee's voice was cut short due to Goodson's elbow being lodged in his side.

"I told you. Why did you have to keep on about it?"

Plaskitt wasn't about to get involved, "Guys, the Major wants us for a debriefing as soon as possible"

"Debriefing? Goodson w…" Lee dodged Goodson's helmet that was flying towards him at great velocity and ducked into the residential area. When they got to the recreation room Major Kelly was already there.

"Okay ladies. Any ideas as to why you are all technically dead now?"

Lee gingerly raised his hand, "Because we blow, sir?"

Kelly suppressed a smile

"No son, you don't blow. It's simpler than that. Any more ideas?"

All three of them looked confused, Kelly sighed and turned to the large screen on the wall which was currently showing a baseball game and inserted a memory stick into the side. The image on the screen changed to the surveillance footage from the training zone.

Kelly pointed to each one of them in turn. "There you are Lee. Dead. Now you Goodson. Oof that had to hurt", Lee and Plaskitt winced. Goodson closed his eyes, "And finally Plaskitt. Straight in the back. Bam!"

Kelly paused the screen and pointed to one part of the screen. It was the mass that Plaskitt had seen prior to being taken down by Kelly. The same mass could be seen near Lee and Goodson prior to their demise. "This was your downfall. You were looking for one target. When you saw your prey you closed your mind to everything else. The fact is, you guys lost because I cheated. I set up decoys to distract you. Bearing in mind that I have also practised in this training zone for the best part of fifteen years, you didn't really stand a chance."

"So we don't blow that much then?"

"No Lee, you don't. This entire exercise was to teach you that sometimes, the rules change. Sometimes, you might have more than one objective. The biggest lesson you learned though was that there will be situations where people will know the terrain better than you. Remember you are not invincible. You can die. Now let's go for a beer, I'm buying."

Alpha team were making their way through the gloomy, corridors of the derelict spacecraft. The Prometheus had been a fine and elaborate vessel while in service. Now it had been ravaged by decay.

"Sir, this is Van Lopik. The maintenance corridors are a mess. We have evidence of some small arms fire and smaller munitions, maybe incendiary devices. There's been some sort of exchange here, but no bodies yet."

Astin cut away from the rest of the team, "Sir, I'm about to investigate storage room 12. There seems to be a strange reading from there."

"Affirmative Astin. Hindle, make your way to Astin and assist"

Astin tried the door. "The battle must have shorted out the door entry system".

Astin and Hindle pulled the door open to reveal a room in complete darkness and went inside. Van Lopik, Bailie and Jones continued up into the main control centre of the ship. Suddenly, Astin's motion tracker started to beep.

He held up the tracker like a gun and spun in the direction of the movement. "Sir, we have movement! Just a single entity, coming towards us at high speed. Shit. There's a second right behind it. What the? The second one keeps disappearing off the tracker!"

Hindle walked toward Astin to check the tracker with the readings from his own. As he moved forward, something started hitting him in the face. "I think we have some sort of water leak down here". As Hindle shone his torch onto the ceiling to locate the source of the leak he realised that it wasn't a leak.

It wasn't water.

"Blood?!" Hindle let out a yell as he dropped to the floor and scrambled to the wall. He fumbled for a flare, lit it and held it aloft. There, covering the ceiling of the tall storage room were thousands of skinned human corpses. All strung up by the feet as if mimicking some grotesque butchers shop window.

"Shit! Astin! Let's get the fuck out of here!" Astin and Hindle ran up the corridor to join their team mates. "Van Lopik, we have found… We have… They're all fucking dead! They've been skinned!"

"Astin, Sound off!", Van Lopik tapped his radio mic, "Boarding craft this is Van Lopik, do you copy? We have found multiple dead. Request confirmation to continue or fall back"

"This is Wren, PDT scan reporting one survivor; continue if safe to do so."

"Two", Hindle countered.

Van Lopik looked confused, "What?"

"There are two of them. We saw two on the tracker"

"Then we need to find them. Let's stay frosty, sooner we find our guys the sooner we can get out of here." The team continued their sweep of the sublevels. Each step they took forced their hearts further up into their throats.

Nobody wanted to discuss what they had found. Hindle was only just keeping it together. Jones was singing a hymn under his breath and Bailie was keeping his eyes on the escape route. As they turned into the stairwell to sublevel 2 the tracker again started it's pulsing.

Astin pulled his tracker to waist height, "Sir, its moving toward us."

Van Lopik looked up into the stairwell and could see shadows flashing over the structure. "Something's definitely up there, I can see it moving".

Van Lopik gingerly climbed the stairs. He was barely eye-level with the next floor when a figure came crashing down on him. Van Lopik attempted to restrain the figure but it was able to break free and headed off down the corridor towards the Boarding craft.

"Stop him!" Yelled Van Lopik as the others raced after the figure. They gave chase and finally caught up with it only when it had stopped and crouched in a corner rocking back and forth.

Bailie walked towards the slumped figure, "Hey man, we're here to help you. Let's get you onboard the ship". The figure wasn't interested in conversation. He was far too terrified to speak. He was wearing a technician's jumpsuit with the name "Collier" embroidered on the chest pocket.

"Damn it, where is he?" Van Lopik marched up to the team, "nearly broke my neck on those stairs". Collier glanced up at Van Lopik, his eyes squinting against the brightness of his shoulder light.

Then his eyes widened, terror streaked across his face as he finally spoke. "Th-th-the eyes!".

Van Lopik stood upright, "wha?" then he felt that something was behind him. He spun round and saw them, two green flashes of eyes. The eyes darted forward and Van Lopik let out a scream as he was lifted into the air. Blood dripped from his stomach, something had stabbed him. He dropped to a heap on the floor.

The others picked up Van Lopik and Collier and ran into the boarding craft. "Barker, this is Astin. Van Lopik is down. I repeat, Van Lopik is down. We need immediate dust off."

"Acknowledged"

The boarder started to rise from the ground. There was a screech as the thing that had impaled Van Lopik had now slashed across the hull of the boarder. The last thing they heard before the thrusters fired was an inhuman roar.

They were onto their ninth drink of the night and none of them seemed close to slowing down. Goodson had all but forgotten his injury and Lee was attempting to obtain free snacks by flirting with the autovend machine.

Major Kelly was telling his war stories. "That's when I realised that the standard waist-mounted smartgun was not the weapon of choice for underwater combat." he slurred.

Plaskitt decided now would be the best time to ask him _the_ question. "Sir, the scar on your chest. How did you…"

Kelly ran his hand over his chest. "Marcoma, 2175. Colonist uprising. We were involved in an assault on an outpost; only, when we got there they were already dead. Some sick bastard had skinned the lot of them and hung them by their feet. Some even had their heads missing. We cut them loose and set up camp there for the night. During the night, something… It…" Kelly fought the lump in his throat.

The relaxed atmosphere of the bar was shattered by the tannoy system, "Medical personnel stand station, incoming vessel. Invoking emergency protocol four-eight-five".

By the time Plaskitt, Lee, Goodson and Kelly got to the docking area the place was already swarming with security and medical personnel. Plaskitt recognised the ships livery as belonging to the Salvage and Rescue sector of Weyland-Yutani.

The company were privately contracted to handle rescue, recovery and emergency transport in the core systems. Their best team, known as Alpha were specialists in handling these manoeuvres as far away as the outer rim.

"Company vultures", Kelly sighed, "must've been attacked by looters."

"I don't think so. Look", Plaskitt pointed to a large barrier that was being erected around the ship. Two stretchers were carried off in the direction of the med lab. One contained a seriously injured tech still wearing an adverse environment suit and the other had what appeared to be a heavily sedated man with no apparent injuries. There were just as many security guards as there were medics surrounding the stretchers.

Kelly pushed his way through the masses of people in the direction of the boarding craft, the others followed in his wake.

As he got to the front he caught the attention of one of the security staff. "Major, you didn't have to come down here. We have this under control. Besides, isn't it your night off?"

Kelly sneered "There are no such things as nights off for real soldiers. Just what exactly is going on here?"

The guard hesitated for a moment, "Just some sort of attack, nothing unusual."

Plaskitt knelt down beside the boarder, "Major, I think you should take a look at this"

Plaskitt saw the colour drain from Major Kelly's face. For once, the Major was speechless.

There, across the hull of the boarder, were two scratch marks identical to those on Major Kelly's chest.

Major Kelly turned on the security guard in an instant, "Right you little son of a bitch, you need to tell me where this ship has been and you need to tell me now."

The guard was clearly terrified, he should be. Nobody had ever seen Major Kelly lose his temper like this before. Even in battle he had an almost unsettling calm about him. "I d-d-don't know! A company guy called Donohue just showed up and told me to stand here and ensure that nobody snoops around"

Kelly shoved the guard aside and set off for the med lab complex.

In the med lab stood Richard Donohue, CEO of Weyland-Yutani's Bio weapons division. He watched the operation on Van Lopik with real interest. He dictated to his PDA without ever taking his eyes from the observation window. Major Kelly burst into the observation chamber.

"Donohue, you asshole. Why are you still sending people to Marcoma? I thought I told you the site was dirty? There's something down there that is using colonists for pincushions. I lost too many men for you to simply disregard it! The site should've been evacuated in the beginning!"

Donohue turned, "Ah, Major. Come in. I wondered how long it would take for you to find out about our little, ah, altercation"

Kelly pounced on Donohue and pinned him to the wall by his throat. "Little? You have even more blood on your hands. I count eighty two casualties so far and that's the ones I know of! This ends. Now!"

The others burst into the room shortly after.

"Sir, don't do it. It's not worth it", Plaskitt reasoned with Kelly, who looked like a man over the edge.

Donohue simpered, "I mean, I can understand your anxiety Major. You have been the only one so far to come face to face with this creature and live to tell the tale. How is the scar nowadays?"

Kelly released his grip from Donohue's throat long enough to deliver a powerful right-hook to his jaw. Donohue dropped to the floor.

Lee ran over to the now prone Donohue, "That's it, Top. You just struck a high ranking official. You're fucked."

Kelly shook the feeling back into his fist, "Rank doesn't mean shit when the company has no jurisdiction over the Colonial Marines."

Donohue started to come to. "Kelly you asshole, I think you've broken my jaw." He got to his feet unsteadily. "The only reason we're here is because we've had a distress call from Marcoma. They've had some sort of infestation. We are assembling a team of rescue personnel to check it out but we'll need firepower for back up in case it hits the fan."

Kelly turned his back on Donohue, "My men aren't puppets for your company games."

The observation room's comms Panel sparked into life, "Mr Donohue sir. I have some bad news."

Donohue staggered to the panel, "what's the problem?"

"Sir, Van Lopik is dead"


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two - Blackstaff 

The Colonial Marine Corps administration centre was buzzing with activity. The central meeting and conference room was packed with delegates from all the regulated colonies, representatives from the various sponsoring companies and, of course, senior officers of the Corps. Stood in the advisor's section Major Kelly maintained his intense glare as Donohue began his proposal.

"It is my suggestion that we send a task force to Marcoma to investigate the signal. We need to ascertain if there is, indeed an immediate danger. If these colonists have been exposed to any alien life form they may require urgent medical assistance"

Kelly couldn't stand to hear any more, "This is horseshit. Donohue is looking for more fodder to put in the firing lines to aid him in obtaining one of these creatures. One of those bastards cut my team and half the colony to pieces in the space of two days. If they're infested I doubt there'll be many, if any, still alive."

"Major Kelly you have not been recognised at this time. Please refrain from future outbursts or I will be forced to exclude you from this meeting", the officiator was not prepared to hear Kelly's protests. Kelly suspected that he was in the company's pocket.

Donohue continued, "I wanted to evacuate the colony at the very start but we didn't truly compresend the urgency until it was too late"

The assembled delegates looked concerned. The officiator shook his head and spoke again.

"The way I see it is simple. We have an SOS call of undetermined specifics. We must go to the assistance of those in need; that is why we were founded. Building Better Worlds requires those worlds to be policed and protected. We shall assemble a team comprising of members of the Colonial Marines and from the Alpha team. This new unit will specialise in the investigation of reports concerning alien incursion. It shall be called Blackstaff. All those in favour of commencement of the formation of Blackstaff please manifest."

The entire room filled with raised hands. Kelly had been overruled. Donohue smirked at Kelly from across the room but was extremely careful not to get too close.

Kelly burst into the recreation quarters, "Son of a bitch! I'm gonna rip that asshole's head clean off!" He turned to face the others and ran his hands through his hair, "They've over-ruled me. They're taking marines out of my section to form a special team. I've decided that I'm going to put you guys forward for it. You're the best and have the best chances of survival. You will be part of a team with members of Alpha. Namely Ed Bailie, Neil Astin, Adam Hindle, Graham Barker and Angela Wren."

Plaskitt sighed "They're sending us to find the thing that made the marks on that ship, aren't they?"

"Yes Plaskitt, they are"

"And made the marks on you"

Kelly hung his head, "Yes."

Goodson looked concerned, "Sir, what are our chances"

"I'm not going to lie to you. I only just escaped with my life, my entire team were destroyed in quick succession. It's going to be hell."

Plaskitt started to wish Goodson had never asked.

Kelly handed them their reassignment notices, "You'll meet your new team at the admin centre at 05:30 sharp."

Bailie, Aston, Hindle, Plaskitt, Lee, Goodson, Wren and Barker stood in the briefing room of the Marine Corps administration centre. They had pretty much limited inter-team communication to a few cursory nods and grunts.

Major Kelly strode into the room with Donohue alongside. Kelly seemed upbeat.

"Well ladies and gentlemen, here are your dossiers on the story so far. As you are aware, we lost contact with the Colony on Marcoma shortly before Alpha's contact with the Prometheus. System checks suggest they still have active base security and that there seems to be movement around the installation."

Donohue slinked past Kelly and picked up the remote control from the table. The viewscreen winked into life and displayed blueprints of the colony complex. "This is where we need to exercise extreme caution. There are civilians here, but there are also a significant xenomorphic presence."

The viewscreen showed stills captured from the security system's hi-res cameras. They showed two separate, very distinct, very different entities. One was a tall humanoid shaped creature clad in armour and sporting what looked like dreadlocks, the other, equally as tall if it were to stand up, more resembling an Animal. Its shiny domed head glistened in the incandescent lighting.

Donohue handed printouts of the images to the team, "we were aware of the existence of the first. The second creature comes as a bit of a surprise. Although it seems a lot more primitive than the first, favouring its strength over technology, it seems exponentially more hostile. We can only assume it's indigenous to Marcoma"

Lee leaned over to Goodson, "Great, we've pissed off the locals"

Wren raised her hand, "Sir, during our time on the Prometheus, our team discovered a survivor, do we have any news on him?"

"Yes, officer…"

"Wren, sir"

"Wren, okay, the survivor was one of the technicians onboard the Prometheus. His name is Douglas Collier and due to his first hand experience of these creatures, he will be going along as an advisor."

Lee shook his head "that's great and all but this guy was a tech, he probably has intricate knowledge of how to be skewered by these things. We need to know how these things fight and more importantly, how they die."

Donohue smiled. "we have arranged for that also. You have a squad leader with intricate knowledge on how to defend against the weaponry of the creatures and also where their weak points lie."

Kelly stepped closer to the team. "In other words. I'm going to be coming with you."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three - Final Approach 

The SS Heracles was an immense vessel that measured easily over fifteen miles of length and at least six miles wide. Its shape resembled that of an enormous arrow fired from some giant celestial bow.

The ship had just started to slow down to operational speed and was now preparing to enter the orbit of the Jungle Planetoid Marcoma.

Marcoma; although twice the size of Earth; was still considered small. Especially when compared to Giger79, the planet that it was orbiting. Giger79 was the size of a small sun, had four other planetoids circling it and was, as yet, uncharted. In fact, Marcoma had been colonized as part of the first step in exploring this vast planet.

As the Heracles lazily made its way into the gravitational pull of Marcoma, parts of the ship started to come to life.

The darkness of the cryogenic compartment was disturbed only by the constant blinking of the vital sign monitors that were mounted onto each cryotube. Inside each of the ten cryotubes, the inhabitants were sleeping soundly.

A screen on one of the walls suddenly powered on and filled the room with an eerie white flicker, After displaying reams upon reams of ascii code, a box appeared in the centre of the screen containing three simple words:

CRYO SEQUENCE COMPLETE

Screens above each cryotube burst into life with images of each team member followed by their heart rate, blood pressure and their slowly rising temperature. The oxygen delivery system started with an angry hiss and thick white clouds of air pumped into the room and the artificial gravity systems hummed into life. As the body temperature of each team member climbed to 90⁰, the glass panels of the doors began to clear of frost and the doors began to rise. The ambient lighting, sensing that the cryotubes were opening, sparked into existence and began to flicker and brighten as the doors began to point skyward.

Collier was the first to wake. His job as technical specialist involved him travelling to countless different colonies and lengthy stints in cryosleep. His body was used to the disruption and could just shrug off the "hypersleep hangover". He glanced around at the cryotubes containing the rest of the team.

Before long the majority of the team had come to and were now busying themselves with their post cryo checks. Collier walked over to the only cryotube that remained occupied. Wren was still sound asleep, she was of small build, pretty but with a look of aloofness that intimidated those who engaged her in conversation. She stirred only to run her hand through her long black hair and then she resumed her slumber. Collier knew the feeling only too well. This was her first cryosleep. It takes the body quite a while to get used to the jolt of waking from such a deep sleep. Just waking up that first time can leave you exhausted and needing more sleep. He smiled to himself and turned to join the others.

The team had congregated around one of the loading bays. Major Kelly was now stood facing the others.

"Okay ladies, let's get this over and done with. Mission protocol briefing."

"Sir", Collier interrupted, "We're not all present. Wren is still sleeping."

Kelly smiled "Doesn't matter, she's not involved in this part anyway. If she's alert and prepared enough to drop us off and pick us up, I'm happy. Hell, she doesn't even have to fly straight. Right. What have we got? Communication failure with a terraforming colony, electronic surveillance shows contact with multiple extraterrestrial life forms. High death tolls likely."

"Sounds like what we do best!" Lee interrupted. This was met by encouraging whoops and cheers from the others

Astin rolled his eyes, "Grunts."

Lee turned to face Astin, "Grunts that are probably gonna save your sorry ass on more than one occasion"

"I doubt that"

Kelly stepped between the two, "okay, handbags away for the minute. We need to focus on the job in hand. Then you two lovebirds can book the honeymoon suite at the Mars Hilton, ok?"

There were stifled laughs from the others.

"Sorry I'm late sir", Wren stumbled into the loading bay looking rather worse for wear

"Good morning sleeping beauty, I trust you had a pleasant slumber?"

Wren looked flustered, "Sir, I-I"

Kelly waved her objections away "Its fine, Cryo really messes you up the first time."

He rounded on the others. "Ok people, we need a smooth insertion. Drop ship prep and DCS ranging within the hour with tactical database assimilation by 08:30. I also think its time we removed the packaging from Gemini and unleashed it on the unsuspecting world.", glances were exchanged, "And if its not too much to ask, can we do this _and _try to get along?"

The dropship hung suspended on the mobilization rail that ran across the top of the loading bay, its underside illuminated by the rotating amber light of the guidance beacons. It was an impressive sight to behold. Goodson and Bailie diligently loaded the dropship's wing mounted missile clusters with the default configuration of nukes and charge packs for the particle beam phalanx. They had customised their power loaders by adding their original squad insignias. They were making it clear to all that this wasn't one unit. It was two units forced to co-habit.

Lee steered a loading truck into the bay. The truck was pulling a trailer containing a large steel box with the Weyland-Yutani symbol emblazoned on the side. And written underneath the logo were the words, GEMINI UNIT. As Lee came to a halt, a crane effortlessly lifted the box off the trailer and onto the steel grating floor. Lee jumped off the truck, briskly walked to the container and pressed his hand against the glass of a concealed panel. The container spoke

"Lee, Gareth, Private, Serial, One, Nine, Seven, Three, Six, Six, Five. Access Granted"

Lee stepped back as the front of the box lifted and slid inside. Two mountings containing lifeless figures slid out of the box. Lee placed his hand on another panel.

"Wakey, wakey" he said to himself.

As he ran his palm over the device, the two previously lifeless forms suddenly burst into life. They stepped off the platform and slowly surveyed the room, their electric blue eyes merely rectangles of bright light. The designers of Gemini were based in the company's Neo Tokyo division and this was evident by the styling of their armour. They resembled some sort of futuristic ninja complete with metallic masks that covered all but their piercing blue eyes.

"Unit Identify" Lee asserted

Both units snapped their attention straight to Lee, their gaze so intense that he started to feel a little uneasy.

"Weyland-Yutani Robotics Institute Incorporated. Department of Defence. Hunter Killer Class. Model… Gemini"

Lee let out a laugh and activated his radio, "Lee to Major Kelly. The twins are awake."

"Excellent, all personnel report to loading bay five."

Everything had gone smooth and by the numbers, the dropship was prepped, the weapons and munition checked., the Armoured Personnel Carrier was ready to take them into the dropship. Everyone knew their roles in this insertion. It couldn't have been more skilfully planned.

So why was Plaskitt suddenly feeling uneasy? He took his place alongside the rest of the team for final equipment checks by Major Kelly. The Major wouldn't go into this without having everything planned, Plaskitt reasoned.

"Right, let's move out."

Major Kelly pulled the door to the APC open and beckoned them in.

In a well rehearsed manoeuvre, the soldiers filed into the APC, stowed their weapons and took their places, they were followed by Major Kelly, Collier and finally the Gemini robots.

Kelly tapped his mic, "Barker, we are secure and ready for drop"

"Affirmative. Wren, you have the comm."

Wren checked the gauges and readouts that spanned the entire width of the cockpit. This was her first non-simulated drop. She had been waiting for this moment since enrolling in flight school. All readings were clear, it was time.

The mobilization rail hauled the dropship over the airlock. As the airlock lazily opened, the mass of mountainous jungle terrain could be seen through the clouds.

Wren made her final checks and nodded to Barker, they both covered their release buttons with their thumbs. "Dropship secured. Primary couplers released. Set the internals. Release on my mark."

The team braced themselves for the impending drop

"Three"

"Two"

"One"

"Mark"

Both Wren and Barker depressed their joystick mounted release buttons and the mobilization platform released its grip on the dropship that now began to hurdle towards the surface of the planet with extreme velocity.

Goodson fought to ensure his stomach remained in its intended location as they plummeted through the sky.

Lee leant over to Plaskitt and Goodson, "Hey guys I know we're dropping to certain doom but I could really go for breakfast right now." The colour started to drain from Goodson's face as Lee continued. "A nice thick stack of bacon with some real runny greasy eggs on top of some thick fatty sausages and a ton of fried bread would just do the trick…."

Goodson doubled over and vomited violently into the nearest helmet. Lee, Plaskitt and Kelly burst into laughter. Goodson regained his composure, wiped his mouth with his sleeve and turned to the others. "I don't travel so well."

Kelly leaned over to Lee "Good stunt Lee. You know the best thing? That was your helmet"

Lee's smile dropped instantly.

Wren punched in the authorisation codes to activate the shipboard engines and the wings slowly unfolded. The engines exploded into life. "Switching to DCS ranging"

Barker checked the trajectory panel, "Nominal to profile"

"Its smooth from here", Wren congratulated herself for a textbook drop.

The dropship descended through the clouds revealing the rich tropical jungle terrain below, in the distance stood the sprawling terraforming complex, the colossal atmosphere processors stood either side like imposing metal bodyguards.

Kelly turned to the viewscreens that covered the back wall. "Wren, can you perform a perimeter flyover?"

"Affirmative"

The dropship circled the complex to allow Major Kelly to evaluate the integrity of the buildings. All seemed fine; the landing lights were still functioning as were the atmosphere processors.

"Ok, Wren, drop us near the front doors and prepare for immediate dust off."

Wren circled again, "Damn it, there's nowhere to land. The surface is too choppy. The landing pad doesn't look to pretty either."

Kelly mulled it over, "The pad's our only option. Do what you can"

The dropship gingerly started to descend over the landing pad, landing gear extended, it gently hovered into place.

Wren breathed a sigh of relief, "Down and Clea…"

Wren's confirmation was cut off as one of the supporting girders that holds the landing pad collapsed sending the pad crashing the remaining 40 feet to the ground and taking the dropship with it.

Sirens sounded, sparks flew from the wreckage of the dropship as the mangled heap now lay on the planet's surface. Klaxons sounded and the cabin was flooded by the crimson of the emergency escape lights. The team pulled their weapons from their stowpoints and made their way to the exit. Kelly kicked at the door and slid it aside. As the team piled out of the rear exit of the APC, Barker and Wren stumbled out of the cockpit hatch.

Kelly surveyed the carnage, "Looks like we'll be walking home. Might as well introduce ourselves to the locals first. Remember people, we only have weapons and motion sensors and there's a chance we'll run into civvies down there so check your targets. Plaskitt, Goodson, get the door. Remaining squad, to your positions"

Plaskitt ran to the door entry panel and hooked up his PDA. Goodson stood in front of the doorway, waist mounted smartgun pointed dead ahead. The PDA bleeped its approval and the door slid open.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four – Cornered 

Elwick pounded down the corridor towards the operations sector. He had seen the dropship crash from the observation platform in the medi wing. If there were survivors then they may be able to help him escape, if they all perished, they might have left him with some salvageable form of communication to the outside world, or at least a half-decent weapon.

As he rounded the corridor to the main entranceway he noticed the blast doors yielding to something from outside. As the door slid open, Elwick threw himself to the floor.

"Don't shoot. Oh shit. Please don't shoot. I'm unarmed"

Goodson brought the sights of his smartgun to bear on the, now prone, Elwick. "Don't move. Plaskitt, we have a survivor"

Plaskitt moved into the complex and aimed his pulse rifle at Elwick. "He's in my sights, proceed"

Goodson adjusted his aim to the end of the corridor and flicked a switch on the base of his smartgun. "Set to heat seeker. Plaskitt, you're good to extract."

Plaskitt helped Elwick to his feet and walked him to the outside of the complex.

"Am I glad to see you guys. My name is…"

Collier walked to the front of the group

"Aidan Elwick"

Elwick snapped round to acknowledge the voice, "Collier. Are you guys from the Prometheus?"

Collier stepped forward, "The Prometheus is gone. We had a breach."

Elwick's eyes narrowed.

Collier shook his head and looked back towards Kelly, "Elwick and I do the same job. Only he works planet-side."

Kelly looked up at the sky. It's going to be getting dark soon. On Marcoma dark also means cold. We'd best get inside. Formulate a plan from there."

The vast chamber that made up the operations room was littered with desks, plotters, printers, computers and server cabinets, the cold steel reflected the fluorescent lighting with a vicious intensity.

Kelly pulled up one of the many chairs that dotted the room and dropped his heavy frame onto it, "I guess we're here for the night. Elwick, how familiar are you with the layout of the operations sector?"

"I didn't spend much time down here but I am roughly aware of where things are."

"That'll do. Okay team, we are going to need to familiarise ourselves with every possible way into, or out of, this area. Elwick, show Goodson, Plaskitt, Lee and Astin the main service corridor."

Elwick reluctantly gestured to the marines, "This way fellas."

As they were pacing down the corridor that lead form the operations room to the main data exchange, Plaskitt's motion tracker buzzed into life. He raised it into view, "We have a reading. Single entity, 300 yards"

Elwick waved his hand dismissively, its just the cooling system, there's a giant duct down there with an equally impressive fan unit attached, it fires up intermittently to keep the data exchangers cool. Look."

They turned into the room containing the entrance to the duct and confirmed that the tracker stopped as soon as the fan disabled.

Plaskitt turned to Elwick, "Right, we need to gather supplies, do we have any food sources nearby?"

"Sure do, back up to where we came in, should be a store room, they even have cooking implements."

The team made their way back to the store room. The room was filled with cans, none of which had any indication of its contents. They began to load their kit bags with as many cans, tools and foodbags as they possibly could. While they were doing so, the tracker sounded again.

"Fans started again, like clockwork" Elwick shrugged to the others.

Back in the duct room, the fan lay still, torn from the duct entrance by a mass of dark figures that now slowly made their way back up the corridor.

"I think we have enough for now" Plaskitt offered, "lets head back to the op room"

The group slung their bags over their shoulders and headed for the Operations Room. As they got to the door, Goodson ran his hand over the lock mechanism, "I've updated the entry codes to include all personnel"

The door didn't open. Goodson tried again. The door didn't open.

"Damn it, I'll have to manually override the mechanism and slide it by hand. Have it open in a jiffy."

The pulsing began again. Plaskitt raised his motion tracker expecting to see the same single dot illuminating the location of the duct room but this time the corridor was instead filled with at least twelve.

"Sir, we have multiple on the tracker. On D Corridor."

Kelly swung round to the security monitors and punched in to co-ordinates for the camera system on corridor D. His eyes widened as he beheld the party of grotesque beasts making their way toward the Operations Room. "Marines, get your asses into the complex now, we have multiple bogeys incoming! The Gemini units are covering the entryway so you're on your own."

Goodson wrenched the doors open and the rest of the group filed back into the main room. Goodson and Astin welded the door shut as the shadows grew larger. Through the glass panels on the door they watched with horror as the grim realisation dawned on them. They knew where they were and they were coming straight for them.

Plaskitt cocked the grenade launcher on his pulse rifle, "Stay on it, remember, check your targets and go for quick kills."

The team froze as they saw, through the window, the most hideous sight they had ever witnessed, its elongated, domed head raised to the window, its teeth razor sharp and the colour of steel and dripping with thick saliva, its mouth opened slightly, its teeth parted and suddenly, a second mouth shot forth out of the first and smashed through the glass. The creatures started to run unrelenting at the door causing the entire frame to shudder.

"Ok guys, stay calm" reassured Plaskitt as the door started to gape slightly.

As the door finally gave way, the creatures piled into the room and came straight for the horrified team.

Plaskitt raised his rifle and fired into the alien mass, "Contact!"

Flashes of pulse rifle fire filled the room as the swarm of creatures were cut down by the marines' awesome firepower. One of the aliens ducked under the aim of Lee and advanced toward him at an alarming rate. Lee, having spotted his attacker in time adjusted his fire sending his would be attacker flailing to the ground, its head spraying a bright yellow fluid across the room. Some of the fluid landed on Lee's leg.

"Aaargh! Get it off me! It's burning!" He dropped to the floor in agony, "Acid! They bleed acid!", he deftly ripped the corroded section of his leg armour away and applied a clean strip of cloth to the wound.

Plaskitt rolled across the bank of tables in the middle of the room while maintaining aim at one the creatures that was now crawling across the ceiling using the grated surface for purchase. As several of his pulse rounds hit home, the creature emanated a chilling primal scream and dropped to the ground.

Within a matter of minutes, the attack was over.

The team surveyed the remains of their aggressors; Lee bandaged his leg properly and, for good measure, kicked the lifeless head of the creature that caused it.

Plaskitt leant out of the door, pulse rifle at the ready, to check for any stragglers. There were none.

"This was a scout party, checking for fresh meat", he proclaimed in bewilderment, "when none of these uglies go back home, they're gonna know we're here." He tapped his radio mic, "Sir, this is Plaskitt. Incursion stemmed. Attackers neutralised. Returning to central." He looked back at his team, "let's get back. But first we better take care of that duct"

Som'tir watched as the landing pods containing the rest of his expedition slammed into the ground. It was hunting season and the Yautja custom of Chiva; translated as Trial or test; was upon them. At this time, young Yautja warriors could earn their tribe's mark of honour by travelling to the hostile planet and hunting down and destroying the ultimate prey. Many who started the hunt would perish by the razor-like teeth of the Kainde amedha, these creatures were powerful, resourceful and equally as hostile. Kainde amedha means "Hard Meat", Som'tir was ready to be tested. He made his way to the clearing containing the recently landed pods and engaged his fellow hunters, "For the pure victory".

The largest of the newly arrived Yautja turned to face Sommir. He towered over the others, his armour was impressive. His visor already dented and scratched from previous hunts. It was the armour of his father, handed down to him to mark his first hunt. That is the greatest mark of honour a father can give to his son. He held his fist aloft and activated his wristblade, "Nan-de than gaun" he repied.

Som'tir nodded. He ran the words of his fellow hunter around his mind. Nan-de than-gaun – No Mercy.That is exactly why they were here. To prove to the Elders of their tribes that they were capable of destroying the ultimate pray with no remorse and no mercy.

A third, final pod came thumping down to the ground a short distance away. It split in two and revealed a sturdy metallic crate. The Yautja wandered over to the crate and each put their right hands upon it. They all spoke in unison "Dtai'k-dte sa-de nav'g-kon dtain'aun bpide" - The fight begun would not end until the end.

The crate emanated a low hum and the front slid forward revealing the contents. The box contained four shoulder mounted plasma casters, four hunting spears, four spear guns, four ceremonial daggers and four medicomps. Each Yautja took their share of the items and closed the box. Nahkor, the tallest Yautja, raised a handheld navigation control at waist height and a green 3D replica of the colony complex spun into view. Highlighted on the map were several dots, some were red, some were orange. The orange dots seemed to be huddled together in one location but the red dots were scattered around the entire complex. With a roar they separated and headed off into the wilderness to find and claim their prize.

The outlines of the team were given an ethereal glow by the eerie light provided by the viewscreens. The doors into the operations area were welded shut, the roof mounted sentry guns were back online and the Gemini units were now patrolling the inner perimeter.

Goodson leant towards the rest of the group. "Right, seeing as we're pretty much done for the night, shall we assign shifts for tonight's watch?"

Kelly didn't look up from the motion tracker, "well volunteered. You can go first Goodson. Then Hindle, Astin Plaskitt then I'll take it."

Plaskitt knew there was something wrong. Kelly wasn't his usual upbeat gruff but generally cocky self. "Sir, what is it?"

Kelly tilted the motion tracker into Plaskitt's view. The entire screen was filled with little white dots all milling around the outside of the central spot.

Plaskitt frowned , "They're just outside the door."

Kelly simply grunted.

"Sir, what are these things?"

"I don't know. I thought we had our hands full with…" he ran his hand over his scarred chest "but these things. I've never seen them before. The way they move they're like animals but they seem to be coordinating their movements."

Plaskitt pulled out a hip flask, "here, I keep this for such an occasion"

Kelly smiled, removed the top from the flask and took a swig. "Shit. What is that?"

"What isn't it?"

"I'm sure I tasted floor cleaner."

"Maybe a little. Just for flavor."

"Plaskitt, you're a crazy son of a bitch. I like that." Kelly looked around the room and lowered his voice to a whisper "I've been looking at the message logs on the colony mailserver. There's an exchange between Donohue and somebody down here. Something about taking samples of the aliens for testing. It looks as though they might have provoked this little square dance. The guy down here used his personnel code rather than his name. Covering his ass I expect. I'm trawling the databanks for a name to match it. Pretty sure he isn't going to be called Mr EL25986."

"So you smell a set-up?"

Kelly frowned "Sure as shit I am. Usually I would extract my team and leave them to it but it looks like we're staying for a while. Plaskitt, I trust you. Can you help me keep an eye on things?"

Plaskitt nodded curtly and handed the flask back to Kelly who took another swig, made an expression as if he were evaluating a particularly fine wine, grimaced and exclaimed "Is that battery acid?"

The Gemini units pounded down the corridor, each taking a different route. One was patrolling clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. At each junction they would report back their location and status.

"Gemini one. Junction two. All clear."

"Gemini two. Junction four. All clear"

As the units moved onto the central junction where their paths crossed they slowed down to a stop.

"Gemini unit. Perimeter search complete." Their blue eyes faded and the two figures stood there lifeless.

In the operations room, Lee stood over the Gemini status panel. "Damn, they've shut down again. We should just let them run on auto. Anyone fancy a wander?"

Barker stood and grabbed his pistol. "I'll go. Junction three?" He made his way down the corridor. It was only dimly lit by the guidance lights flashing in sequence as though a ring of light was moving down the corridor. As he turned the corner into the perimeter catwalks, Barker closed the main door to the operations room.

"I think I'm going to have a lie down. Let me know when its my shift", Kelly curled up and lay in a drunken stupor. Plaskitt took the half empty hip flask and the motion tracker from the table. He held the tracker level and flipped the power switch. The screen filled with the boot up messages and then faded into the green grid and white dots that detailed their current state of being trapped. Plaskitt noted the single dot moving up the screen toward the mass of dots. "Lee. I only have a single entity on the perimeter. Has one of your toys broken?"

Lee shook his head "both have. That dot is Barker. He's gone to switch them to manual"

Plaskitt turned to face Lee, "Hey, safety protocol. He shouldn't be on his own… Oh sorry, I thought you'd sent him alone. Who are the other two?"

Lee look surprised "Other two?"

"Yes. The two behind Barker"

Plaskitt looked down at the track with horror as he saw that more dots were entering the blank space from the right hand side and the mass of circles were moving toward the point of entry. "They've broken through"

Barker meandered down the corridor. As he rounded the corner he saw the two Gemini robots stood around three hundred yards away.

His radio burst into life "Barker! This….Plaskitt…..The…..orphs….broken….perimeter….t..rn…..ck!"

"Stupid marine radio with their weak ass signals", Barker strode down towards the robots. He hard a faint scuttling sound. The sound of metal on metal coming from behind. He turned to face the sound and whilst walking backwards yelled "its fine. I might not know how to kill loads of stuff but I'm pretty sure I can turn on a few robots on my own. Go back. It's a one man job!". The sound stopped. Barker shook his head and set off again towards his destination. The sound started again but this time seemed louder and this time sounded more like footsteps. "Damn it", Barker turned again. "What the fu…". He froze as moving into view came the two most horrific things he had ever seen. He instantly recognised them from the photographs Donohue had given them. Their teeth were as shiny as metal and were dripping unspeakable ooze. Barkers radio crackled into life again

"Barker. This is Plaskitt. They've gotten into the perimeter. Turn back!"

Barker darted off toward the robots, the aliens launched into a run toward him. One was running across the floor and the other across the wall.

"shit, shit!" Barker cursed as the creatures easily made up ground and were quickly gaining on him. He unholstered his pistol and fired blindly behind him. Each shot narrowly missing their shiny domed heads. He knew they were close, he could feel the vibrations of their impact against the steel grating floor. As he got closer to the robots he fished out the activation card from his pocket, the screen flashed OUT OF RANGE. "Come on! Come on!" he screamed as he got closer to his goal and the aliens got closer to their prey. Then, the lights on the card emitted a green hue and the screen welcomed him with the words READY. PRESS TO ENGAGE. As he moved his thumb to the green engage button on the card, something hit him hard in the back and he dropped to the floor. He spun onto his back in time to see one of the creatures looming over him. He could see now that there were more than two. Many more.

Having realised that there was no possible way to escape from his nightmare, Barker reached for the activation card next to him, looked his attacker in the mouth and sneered. "Fuck you". The creature opened its mouth to reveal a second smaller set of teeth which burst out and pierced his skull. His body spasmed and his thumb pushed down on the button marked Activate.

Lee watched on as the white dots on the tracker came ever closer to them. "How did they get in? How!"

Plaskitt didn't take his eyes from the main doorway "Beats me. Must've found a weakpoint in the structure or an airvent."

Major Kelly had heard the disruption and woken with a sobering start. "Lets get on this! We take them down and keep our asses as far away as possible! I didn't plan on us dying today. Especially at the hands of some overgrown bug!"

Lee pointed the tracker at the door "Range ten meters and closing. Nine. Eight. Seven, they're right outside!"

The team maintained their aim at the doorway as it slid silently open. They looked into the pitch black or the corridor, then the cycling guidance light returned to the start and lit up the swarm of dark creatures that was bearing down on them.

Plaskitt opened fire on the mass "Contact! Go for quick drops people. I want them down fast!"

The aliens swarmed into the room through the open door. Pulse rifle fire lit the room and illuminated the twisted carcasses of those creatures unfortunate enough to be in range of the team's accurate and deadly firepower. For each creature destroyed, another came in from the corridor to take its place.

Goodson check his ammo gauge "I'm running low"

Lee checked and responded "same here. Got any sharp sticks?". Lee cocked his rifle and fired a grenade into the crowd of creatures sending them flying through the air. "That's for my leg"

Plaskitt dropped behind the others and opened the rear doors. "Prepare to fall back. Don't let any of them past you."

Lee's rifle stopped, "I'm out!" He unclipped the shotgun from his backpack and fired it into the chest of one of the creatures sending its innards flying out of its back as it slumped to the floor.

Kelly took the front "Fall back and use your flame units to make your escape"

The mass of aliens moved closer to the team, it was only a matter of time before they ran out of ammo, they were severely outnumbered and the outcome was inevitable.

Kelly fired his flamethrower across the path of several of the creatures preventing them from lunging at the team. "If you guys want out then take your shots now. It'll be less painful than what these bastards have in store."

Suddenly the swarm of aliens were cut down from behind as torrents of pulse fire filled the operations room hitting each beast with deadly precision.

With each volley of fire and the demise of each alien electronic voices got closer "Acquiring Target. Target Down". It was the Gemini unit.

The two robots swept into the room firing wildly at each alien which in turn burst apart spreading their acidic insides across the walls and floor. The last remaining alien lunged at Gemini one. The robot grabbed it by the throat, plunged its hand into the alien's gaping mouth and snapped its neck. The alien went limp and dropped to the floor.

"Sweep. Complete"

The team gazed at each other in disbelief. They had stood shoulder to shoulder facing a certain death with no hope of survival. Now they were surveying the mass of alien corpses that piled up on the operations room floor. The acidic blood was seemingly no longer corrosive. Plaskitt counted the team. "Where's Wren?". He looked over his shoulder and saw Wren in one of the observation rooms.

Wren, huddled in the corner with her sidearm spent, pulled her syringe gun from her belt pack. The syringe contained a cocktail of drugs so toxic that death would be almost instantaneous. She held it to her arm and closed her eyes. A hand grabbed hers and pulled the syringe away from her. It was Plaskitt. Wren burst into tears. Plaskitt sat beside her and comforted her.

"Shh. Its alright. Its over. I gotcha". He opened his medikit and passed Wren a mild sedative. "You'll be fine."

Wren looked up at him, her face streaked with tears "How can you cope with…?"

Plaskitt smiled soothingly "You get used to it.".

The truth was, you didn't. He was just as ready as her to take the game over shot. Had it not been for the Gemini robots, the entire team would have been dead. Wren took the sedatives, "thanks" she mouthed as she faded into unconsciousness.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter Five – Reversal of Fortune 

Nahkor had watched the operations room siege with great interest. This soft meat had managed to best the Kainde amedha relying purely on technology. The hard meat's superior numbers meant nothing against their fire power. Nahkor remembered something his father had told him as an infant. A race of beings that were obsessed with violence and used elaborate yet primitive devices to maim and kill. Although many of them were extremely unsporting, some of them proved to be worthy adversaries. Nahkor clicked his mandibles in excitement. He had found Oomans. He turned to walk back down the airvent and was met by the steely sharp teeth of one of the aliens. Without excerting too much effort he extended his wristblade and cleanly decapitated it. It was no challenge. He wasn't going to take a trophy from this one. It was slow and weak. He would have spared it had it not been meaning to kill him. Nahkor snarled at the body of the alien and stepped over it in disgust.

As he reached the end of the airduct, he heard sounds. Ooman sounds. They were communicating. He crouched over the vent and listened intently. He recorded some of the sounds onto his navicomp. It was just as he'd imagined. His father had told him so many stories of the big hunts. It was such an honour to be able to take part in Chiva on the same world where his father had been on his final hunt. He needed to inform Som'tir of the existence of this new target. They were of the same clan and returning with both Kainde amedha and Ooman trophies would seal the counsel's respect for them as hunters. Nahkor opened the comms signal to his comrade and sent the signal indicating to meet at the extraction point: A clearing not twenty miles away.

"Got it!", Wren yelled across the room. "Sir, we have an out!"

Kelly rushed to Wren's side "What have you got?"

She tapped the screen. "Hangar four has an Alpha boarder on the roster that hasn't been booked out. My guess is that it all kicked off before they had a chance to leave."

Kelly checked the system. The hangars must have surveillance cameras for security. "Outstanding".

The viewscreen filled with the view of the hangar. In the dim light provided through gaps in the ceiling, a large silver craft could be seen, its dorsal engines emblazoned with the Alpha team insignia.

Kelly glanced over at Wren "Good work Wren. I can see why Barker had such confidence in you"

Wren smiled but quickly looked away. They had found what was left of Barker late last night during their sweep of the perimeter. He had practically no head to speak of but he still clutched the activation card with his thumb set hard on the button. He had died but had saved the lives of the rest of the crew.

Plaskitt, Lee and Astin prepared a collection of booby traps in the operations complex. The corridors were littered with proximity detectors, sentry guns and makeshift mines made from seismic survey charges that Lee had found in the food store. Once they were confident that they wouldn't be followed, the team set off toward the cluster of hangars at the far side of the complex.

The battle had been raging for hours. Nau'Vo had mistakenly wandered into the alien's hive. Somehow, he had managed to infiltrate the outer layer of the hive with little or no resistance. He was now however, deep within the royal chambers and surrounded by the Praetorians, the soldiers created to protect the Queen.

The Praetorians were fully matured drones. If the hive was established properly, a select few older drones would start to moult, this would give off pheromones that caused the other drones to attack them. Only the strongest and quickest moulting drones would make it outside where their skin would shed and they would fully transform into Praetorians, as strong as the Queen and as fast as a drone. They would then return to the hive and take their rightful place as protectors to the Queen.

Nau'Vo's shoulder mounted plasmacaster fire streaked toward the Praetorians but the majority of shots either missed or had little effect. The Praetorians drew closer. The Yautja hunter extended his wristblade and sliced wildly at the oncoming horde but again made little impact. He then impaled the Praetorian using his long spear but was lifted from behind by another of the creatures. Still fighting to free himself he was carried off to the royal chamber.

The team ran down the corridor that led to the hangar bays. Each intersection was becoming more and more poorly lit than the last. And now they had started to encounter a strange secreted residue covering the walls and on occasion obscuring the door entry panels. As they get to the hangar bay they quickly locate bay four.

"Sir, we've got it" Plaskitt pointed to the large thick steel door to his right.

Kelly pointed to the door entry panel "Lets get it open"

Plaskitt ran to the panel and ran his hand over it. The screen flashed red. "Access denied." Undeterred, he attempted to bypass the lock mechanism using his bypass card. Again the screen flashed red.

Elwick sighed. "It's run from a separate security database, designed to prevent bypass and any other means of forced entry. Here, let me". Elwick walked to the doorway and placed his hand on the panel. "Elwick, Aidan, Science Division. Serial EL25986"

Kelly and Plaskitt exchanged glances. The door slowly heaved open revealing the abandoned Alpha boarding craft.

When Nau'Vo came round he found himself pinned to the wall by thick dark strands of secreted resin. Unable to reach his razor disc he tried to blast himself free using his shoulder mounted plasmacaster. He couldn't aim, something in the resin that was binding him was interfering with his weapons. He managed to free himself by hacking at the strands using his wristblade and was now clearing the rest of the resin from his body. His visor had been removed and discarded meters away from his current position. As Nau'Vo went to retrieve the visor he was set upon again by the Praetorians that lay in wait. He fought bravely but was pinned to the ground, as one of the praetorians opened their mouths to administer the final blow; Nau'Vo activated his plasmacaster sending a hot plasma bolt through the skull of the Praetorian. As it fell to the ground, he quickly sliced at the remaining Praetorian with his wristblade sending half its head crashing to the floor as the rest of its body stood solid upright in shock at what had just happened. Nau'Vo got to his feet and stepped quickly to the opening of the chamber. As he was heading to the exit, he let out a howl of warning, as Nau'Vo spun round to face his attacker he was met by a spider-like creature that made a leap for his face. He swung his wristblade again and sliced the creature in half. His wristblade was now practically melted away and was almost certainly no longer any use as a weapon. As he turned to face the door again another of the face-huggers launched itself at him. His scream was abruptly cut off as it pressed itself against his face and placed its tube down his throat.

The team ran up the loading ramp of the Alpha Boarder and quickly raised it for eventual takeoff. Wren ran to the cockpit and began pre-flight checks. She flipped a switch and the hangar doors slid open.

The two engine fuel storage gauges displayed minimum charge. "Damn it," she exclaimed punching her fist into the padded side wall. "We don't have much power. I doubt we can even reach orbit."

Kelly looked out at the landscape. "We don't need to. Yet. Is there enough to get us to that hill?" He pointed at a small hill in the distance, roughly twenty miles away.

Wren did the math in her head, "I guess so"

Kelly smiled "Then take us there. Let's see if they left anything behind"


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter Six – The Unlikely Alliance 

The boarder lazily floated forward out of the hangar and onto the launchway, its wings unwrapped themselves and the engines started to hum louder.

Wren tapped her mic "This should only take a few minutes, I'm not sure what state this ship is in so expect a fairly rough ride"

The boarder lifted into the air and flew low over the jungle canopy toward the hill.

Kelly eyeballed Elwick, "So, you never said who you work for."

Elwick look right back at Kelly with a look of discomfort "Collier told you. Weyland-Yutani"

Kelly leaned forward, "No, I mean who _you_ work for"

Collier looked between the two men, confused. "Elwick, what does he mean?"

Kelly spoke to Collier without taking his gaze from Elwick, "Does the name Donohue mean anything to you?"

"Donohue was a complete scumbag who tried to steal some of the artifacts we found on the surface expeditions. What's he got to do with Elwick?"

Kelly looked over to Collier "You got the scumbag part right. He wasn't interested in your buried treasure. He was looking for evidence of something more real. And your friend here was helping him find it."

Elwick jumped to his feet "That's bullshit. There's no proof"

Kelly sneered "Except the hundreds of emails sent between Donohue and a certain EL25986, which turns out is your personnel code."

"You son of a bitch!" Collier leapt at Elwick and punched him repeatedly in the face as hard as he could. By the time Plaskitt and Astin could pull him away, Elwick's nose was badly broken and flowing blood.

Collier paced around the floor of the boarder "That piece of shit is responsible for the death of every crew member on board the Prometheus. A cargo crate was sent to us from the surface marked for the attention of Sector twelve of Weyland Yutani's gateway based research station."

Plaskitt looked concerned "Sector twelve. That's Bio Weapons"

Collier continued "There was a problem with the power supply in the crate and as a result the crate had to be opened. Inside was a cryotube containing a tall creature with a really fucked up face. It had like four big claws and dreadlocks. Turns out the power supply was not only running the tracker and containment systems required for crates by quarantine law, they were also keeping this monster frozen. This thing must have woken up really pissed off and decided to teach its captors a lesson." Collier squared up to Elwick again. "And you sent it up to us."

Wren's voice crackled over the intercom and broke the tension "Guys, we're at the hill, I'm beginning descent"

Nau'Vo uneasily stood upright, his legs felt weak, he couldn't remember what had happened to him. He remembered being in the hive but anything after that was a complete mystery. A sudden wave of panic took hold of him, a sharp pain formed in his chest, something was moving inside him and now it was chewing its way out. He dropped to the floor and doubled up clutching his chest and gasping for breath, the pain was now becoming unbearable, he opened his wrist computer and began the sequence for self destruct, he was about to press the final digit to confirm the countdown and a searing pain wracked his entire body, his back arched, he let out a primal scream as his chest bulged and finally gave, his flesh torn apart, his luminous green blood oozing from the gaping wound, something was emerging from his chest. As Nau'Vo lay dying, his last sight was that of the creature, emerging from his chest, its mouth filled with tiny metallic teeth.

At the foot of the hill was a small clearing. The clearing contained what appeared to be an abandoned outpost. The buildings were intact but in a state of disrepair, any footprints that may have been were mercilessly covered over by years of winds and torrential rain. The entire site was dominated by a large water tower nestled in between the buildings. As the ramp lowered the team made their way out of the boarder and into the main street of the outpost. Kelly walked straight to a specific location, a large building with equally intimidating thick blast doors. He stepped inside and returned only seconds later. "Wren! Here!"

Wren hurried over to the building and stepped inside once beckoned by Kelly.

Once they were both inside, Kelly turned on the overhead lighting. The building house several small wrecked shape craft from various different companies and of varying shapes and uses. "What type of fuel cell does the Boarder take?

"232A" she replied, rather impressed by the collection of spare parts.

Kelly pulled a pair of cells out of a high powered mining tug craft. "Now we have two. Let's get a trolley and wheel them onto the boarder."

The team worked feverishly on replacing the fuel cell for a solid twenty four hours. They also took it in turns to explore this wonderful new place and its intriguing buildings. Everyone except Kelly. He knew what the place used to be. He had been there before. He had cut down the bodies from the trees. He had seen his entire team cut to pieces not a hundred yards from where he stood now. A chill crept up his spine. He shuddered. Plaskitt walked down the ramp to join him. "You okay sir?"

Kelly looked up at the night sky, the stars twinkled in the light reflected from the other moons. The sky was largely dominated by the vast planet Giger79. "I don't believe it. It hasn't changed. Eleven years to the day and nothing is different."

Plaskitt looked around him. "Is this where it happened, the Colonist uprising?" Kelly nodded.

"Eleven years to the day. My entire team destroyed, an entire camp of rebels murdered. It almost killed me. I fought with it completely unarmed, we traded blows for a good hour and then it slashed its blade across my chest and made off into the jungle. Seeing the images on the surveillance camera brought it all back to me. Those eyes, just flashes in the cover of night.". Kelly drifted off into thought for a moment and returned with a jolt. "Sorry kid. Is the boarder up to spec yet?"

Plaskitt pointed his thumb at the boarder, "Just waiting for the Cell to top up and we're away."

Kelly made his way back up the ramp. "Best get some sleep then, tomorrows gonna be a bitch"

The drones entered the birth chamber to ensure that the hatching had completed successfully. As they entered the chamber they became agitated, something was wrong. The trespasser was dead and looked to have been a successful host but they could not sense the hatchling. The pheromones they could sense were wrong. Mutated. This was an abomination. They could not allow diluting of their species. They hunted for the hatchling in order to dispose of it and keep their bloodline pure. One of the drones noticed movement in a recess in the corner of the chamber, it got closer to the dark crevice to investigate. At that moment, behind the drone, a figure slowly and silently dropped from the ceiling, it stood straight and towered above the drone. It was easily eight feet tall and had the long spiked tail of the alien and the head was slightly domed but it had a crown-like outgrowth similar to that of the alien Queen and it also sported two sets of Yautja mandibles. As the drone turned to see what was behind it the creature opened its mandibles and then its mouth to reveal a smaller inner mouth which shot forward and pierced the skull of the drone. It then spun round to face the second advancing drone and pierced its throat with its long horn ended tail. As the drones slumped to the floor the young alien/Yautja hybrid Queen let out a blood curdling roar. It surveyed its new environment. This was a good place to start the hive. Especially with so many hosts nearby.

It was morning and the first rays of light were coming through the viewing portals on the side of the boarder. Hindle sat upright in bed and squinted into the light. He then looked round at the others, they were still asleep. He stood up and stifled a yawn and opened the ramp to get some fresh air. He slowly made his way down the ramp and sat on the end. As he placed his head in his hands to bring his thoughts to bear he heard a voice coming from within the grove of trees straight ahead. He pulled his handgun from its holster and entered the grove. The voices seemed to be coming from a higher point, almost like they were up in the trees. Hindle looked up into the dense canopy and was momentarily blinded when a light flashed into his eyes. Blinking heavily, he looked down to the ground when something caught his attention. A mark on his chest: three red dots of light. The lights moved directly over his heart. He froze, his eyes darting around for the source of the light, he looked up to the place he saw the blinding light and fired blindly into the canopy. Leaves fell to the ground, branches that had been cut away by the pistol fire now lay on the densely grassy floor of the grove. The voice came again, Hindle ran toward the source of the sound, suddenly his breath was taken away as something sharp pierced his abdomen. He lifted from the floor, blood streaming to the ground. He moved his hands to the source of the pain and felt a large arm directly in front of him. As his blood drained, his life ebbed away, as his sight dimmed he saw a figure materialise in front of him. A huge muscular creature, its face covered with a metallic mask. Its blade retracted and he fell to the floor. The creature bound his feet and then dragged his lifeless body into the dense foliage of the jungle.

Kelly woke with a start. He clutched at the scar on his chest as it throbbed. He fought to remind himself that the atrocities he witnessed were eleven years ago. He lay back onto the floor and allowed his head to loll to the side. He opened is eyes due to the intense light on his face.

"The ramp's down" he mumbled. At that point, Bailie came bounding up the ramp.

"I've just been outside to check the perimeter, I've found a lot of blood nearby"

Kelly raised his head "Any sign of a body?"

"Not yet. I'll continue the search"

Kelly jumped to his feet, "I'll come with you."

Bailie and Kelly made their way to the clearing, Kelly knelt down beside the blood and dipped his finger into the pool. "Its definitely blood. I'd say we cant know its human but considering we seem to be the only thing on this damn ball that bleeds red, I'd say it is."

Wren ran into the grove, "Sir, Hindle is missing"

Nahkor sat high in the tree with the carcass of his prey tied upside down in front of him. He pulled out his toolkit and sliced the head clean from the body. He placed it in the small bowl of bubbling liquid sat between his legs. As he waited he squeezed the artery hanging from the neck and placed the mark of his clan onto his helmet with the blood that was now covering his hand. He then used another implement to remove the, now clean and smooth skull from the liquid. He ran his finger over its brow appreciatively and then placed it into his trophy bag. He felt a presence. Som'tir was nearby. Nahkor adjusted his visor's view to Green mode and saw his fellow clan member in the treetops in front of him. The real hunt could now begin.

The team assembled at the boarder's loading ramp. Kelly paced in front of them. "Right. We have lost another member of our party. We need to stay together, that way we stand a chance. As soon as the heat drops, we will launch the boarder and get the hell off this planet once and for all."

Kelly was obviously extremely uncomfortable about their current surroundings. Plaskitt had never seen him so jumpy. The rest of the group seemed to be jelling a little better now and acting more like a unit. Bailie and Goodson were comparing war stories and Lee and Jones seemed to be locked in a macho battle to see who could get the attention of Wren; the only female on board.

The Gemini units were patrolling the grove and its surrounding area, the Yautja had checked them over from a distance, there was no honour to be had from hunting machinery, so they left them to their duties. As Gemini one reached a clearing, he froze to the spot and stared, undeviating into the thick foliage. Gemini two back to its counterpart's side and did the same. They pause there motionless for what seemed like an eternity, their electric blue eyes scanning the area for any sign of movement. Something was there. Suddenly the silence was broken as an immense swarm of alien warriors tore through the dense green plant life, their teeth shining in the broken sunlight that lit the clearing. The Gemini units opened fire and cut the creatures down a row at a time, the acidic blood spraying the trees and causing the area to fill with smoke. Alien after alien was destroyed as the uprated pulse rounds fired by the robots pounded into them and ripped them to pieces. The robots were extremely robust and precise in their firing, they could hold them off. For now.

As Kelly set off to return to the boarder, a silver flash narrowly missed his throat and lodged into the thick metal side of the craft. He quickly turned to face the source of the attack. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the outline of a tall figure as it disappeared into the jungle.

As another silver flash passed him close by he decided he had seen enough.

"I don't think so", Kelly ran to the water tower and launched a grenade at the base. The grenade exploded sending the tower crashing to the ground. The remainder of the team ran into the boarder as water flooded the area and ran into the foliage. Sparks flew as two figures crackled into view. Kelly had shorted the cloaking devices used by the Yautja hunters. The two Yautjas ran toward Kelly at an alarming rate with their wristblades extended. Kelly ripped off his shirt revealing the scars across his chest and pulled out his combat knife.

"Come on, you fuckers!"

Plaskitt amassed all his strength and pushed Kelly to the ground as one of the Yautja's razor sharp discs narrowly missed the top of his head. He then brought his pulse rifle to bear and fired at the advancing hunters. They span and easily sidestepped the bullets, their dreadlocks swinging as they did. The two hunters each pinned Kelly and Plaskitt and raised their fists in preparation to plunge their wristblades into their victims but then stopped suddenly. They turned their heads to look into the jungle, something was coming toward them fast.

The Gemini robots had managed to hold off the creatures fairly well up to this point. The aliens were drawing close and being decimated by the rifle rounds. As the robots cleared yet another wave of aliens, a party of praetorians flanked them and drew toward them under cover of the thick trees. In a valliant attempt, the Geminis switched to close range combat and tore through the first two praetorians that attacked them but finally were overpowered as ten of them coordinated an attack and tore them apart. The team were now left wide open.

"What are they doing?" Plaskitt whispered to Kelly as they both lay pinned by the large hunters.

"Not killing us, best not to question it" retorted Kelly; now resigning himself to his perceived inevitable doom.

The Yautja released Kelly and Plaskitt and stood up straight to face the foliage, Nahkor tilted his head to one side in confusion. Som'tir looked to his taller companion for advice. Nahkor clicked his mandibles anxiously and turned to face a now bemused Kelly and Plaskitt, he bent down and picked up their rifles and threw them to the marines.

Plaskitt looked at the rifle, then at the Yautja, "What..The fuck?"

Kelly cocked his rifle "All becomes clear"

The foliage separated and swarms of alien warriors closed in on the four figures. The Yautja looked away from Kelly and Plaskitt and fired their plasma casters into the swarm. The marines also opened fire. The newly united fighters cut down their common adversary as they advanced from all angles. The army of aliens stretched back for miles, at the very back of the line was the Queen. The aliens had to flee their own hive due to infection by the impure hybrid half-breeds that now hunted them. Lee, Astin, Jones, Goodson and Collier ran out of the boarder to join the fray, they fired into the alien onslaught. Elwick ran into the cockpit of the boarder.

"Wren, they're all gonna die. Lift the ramp and let's get out of here"

Wren, turned to him, "No, we keep the boarder prepped for immediate dust off. As soon as they see an opportunity to fall back, they will"

Elwick raised his gun and smashed Wren over the head with the handle. She slumped against the console.

"Sorry hun, looks like I'm on my own"

Elwick sat at the main controls and prepared for launch. At that moment he remembered the alien weapons that were lodged in the ship's bodywork. He realised that he could still make money out of this venture. He got out of his seat and made his way to the ramp. As he leant over to reach the razor disc stuck in the ship a misfired grenade exploded nearby and he fell from the ramp to the floor hitting his head hard. He crawled on all fours into the foliage to take cover and recuperate. Jones had seen what had happened in the cockpit from outside, he followed Elwick into the plant life.

"Elwick, you piece of shit. Did you think you could get away?", He reached down to grab Elwick's arm but Elwick had other plans. He sliced the razor disc across Jones' throat. Jones froze in shock at what had just happened. Then, gasping for breath, fell to the floor.

The aliens were advancing and the human/Yautja alliance were quickly losing ground. Som'mir unclipped a box from his belt, pressed a button on the tip and threw it to the floor. A bright red light flashed on the box. It was sending a signal.

Goodson's rifle ran out of ammunition, "Shit, I'm dry". A praetorian ran toward him and cut him in half with its tail. Astin saw Goodson's demise unfold and ran to the aid of his comrade.

"No! Goodson", He fired at the praetorian at close range and its head exploded into a mist of flesh and acid which covered Astin. He screamed with equal measures of agony and rage. Lee ran to Astin but he was already dead.

Elwick decided now was the time to make his move. He collected the razor disc and began to crawl out of the undergrowth. He heard movement behind him, he raised his razor disc again. "How many more of you do I have to ki…". As he turned, the gravity of his situation became very clear. The alien punched through his skull with its smaller mouth and tossed his body aside.

A large craft de-cloaked high over their heads. Four landing pods thumped into the ground. As they split open, more Yautjas emerged. These ones looked very different. Their bodies were totally encased in armour, their visors all identical. It was customary to carry soldiers onboard the mother ship in case of major catastrophes. The risk of an entire planet being lost to the Yautja was such a catastrophe.

The four soldiers ran to the front of the team and fired their plasma casters, they were much more powerful than those carried by the hunters. A phalanx of searing plasma burnt its way through several lines of the aliens. One of the soldiers placed a type of mortar on the ground and signalled for the rest to stay behind. The mortar blazed into the crowd of aliens and exploded into a white hot ball of flame. The brightness of the explosion made the sky seem dark as even the brightness of the sun paled in comparison.

When the explosion died down all that remained of the alien onslaught was a mass of charred remains and a few pools of acid. Nahkor and Som'tir walked to the few remaining survivors and nodded appreciatively. The soldiers then turned and walked to the tractor field of the mother ship, stopping along the way to collect the severed heads of a few of the aliens that hadn't been pulverised by the mortar.

Kelly smiled "every soldier loves trophies". In that moment, it became clear to him. The reason for the attack all those years ago; they were hunters. He thought back to his childhood hunting trips with his father, he had done the same things to his "prey". The skinning and hanging, the kill by firearm and at close range, taking trophies of the more impressive kills; this was big game hunting. He looked back at Nahkor and Som'tir. They were still here. Did they mean to finish what they had started? He pointed to the mother ship. "Shouldn't you guys be leaving now?"

Nahkor reached out and grabbed Kelly's arm and adjusted it to point back near the colony complex, at a small organic structure nearby. It was the alien hive. Kelly nodded in understanding, "You want to finish the job? Lets go"


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven – The Lair of the Impure 

There were few survivors of the siege at the outpost. Goodson, Astin and Jones had been lost in battle; their bodies were buried alongside those that perished eleven years previously. Hindle and Elwick had both disappeared. Wren had somehow been knocked unconscious and was now laid out on a makeshift bed in the cargo area of the boarder. The Yautja had reluctantly agreed to enter the boarder and now stood closely together in the corner watching the Oomans with great curiosity. Plaskitt handed his hip flask to Kelly who gratefully accepted, "you earned your stripes today kid. I'd want you next to me in battle anytime", he took a swig from the flask, walked over to the Yautja and offered it to them. The Yautja simply stared at him. Their eyes could be seen through their visors at this proximity. They were narrowed with confusion. They had not realised how similar the Ooman's culture and social interaction was to their own. Obviously, the Yautja honour system proved them to be far more civilised but for the first time, Nahkor and Som'tir regarded these creatures in a way that showed them as something other than soft meat. As the boarder; now piloted by an extremely anxious Collier with only a few hours of pilot school flight time under his belt; drew closer to the hive, the marines began their final weapons checks and good luck rituals. This was also observed with great interest by the Yautja. The boarder landed and Collier opened the tannoy system, "Okay guys, We're here. I'll keep the boarder prepped for take off. Just be quick, yeah?"

Bailie, Lee, Plaskitt and Kelly stood at the doorway to the ramp. The Yautja stood beside them, they extended their wristblades and offered a quick phrase in unision, "Dtai'k-dte sa-de nav'g-kon dtain'aun bpide" - The fight begun would not end until the end. The others exchanged glances, and nodded at the Yautja. As the ramp lowered, Kelly raised his pulse rifle in the air and took a deep breath. "Men, we started off as two separate teams, we didn't jell too good. Now, in spite of severe losses and vicious adversity, we are operating as a single unit. I am proud to be going into battle with you". He lowered his rifle in front of the team, they placed theirs on top and then; Bailie, Lee, Plaskitt and Kelly pointed their voices toward heaven with their new battle cry, "Blackstaff!", the Yautja roared in agreement, they knew a battle cry when they heard one.

The team pounded down the ramp and toward the mouth of the hive. As they came closer to the entrance, a swarm of aliens poured out of the doorway. The Yautja yelped in surprise, these aliens were different. They had the same basic size and shape but now sported lighter skin and mandibles. The Yautja realised what had happened, their genetic purity had been violated by the hard meat. These abominations must be destroyed. The Yautja removed their masks revealing their true appearance. Upon seeing them, Plaskitt also realised what had happened. These hunters had the same physical attributes as these mutated creatures. The aliens must somehow take on the DNA of creatures they come into contact with. The Yautja waded into the swarm of alien/yautja hybrids and began to hack limbs and heads off with their wristblades. Kelly looked to the others; they were visibly afraid. He couldn't blame them really. They were going into battle with their former predator against their common enemy. Except these creatures were totally different; they looked like a cross-breed between the predator and the alien. "Let's get in there!", Kelly screamed as they made their way into the fray.

Within moments the team were surrounded. Their backs were covered by the Yautja who in turn had theirs covered by the marines. Plasma bolts and pulse rounds lit up the faces of both the marines, the Yautja and the Predaliens. As one of the abominations leapt toward Plaskitt he fired straight into its mouth sending luminous blood spattering over him. He braved for the agonising acid burn. There was nothing. The blood of these creatures wasn't corrosive! "Close range fire is a go!" he shouted to the others, "their blood doesn't burn!"

"In that case…", Lee unhooked the smartgun from its housing across his back and brought it to bear on the creatures. He flicked it to smart mode and aimed at one of the creatures. "Shit! Its zeroing in on the friendlies too!" the smartguns intelligent targeting system could not differenciate between the Yautja and the predaliens. Their genetic makeup was too well intertwined. The Yautja correctly read the situation drew some of the predaliens away from the main swarm. Once the Yautja were out of range Lee opened fire. Tiny ballistic missiles launched from the muzzle of the gun in a spray of fire; each one impacting perfectly on the chests of the predaliens. As the smartgun ran out of ammunition, the number of predaliens had more than halved.

Kelly ran forward, still firing; "come on boys, we've got them reeling!"; his pulse rifle firing bursts of hot metal toward the hybrids. Then Kelly's rifle fell silent. Plaskitt watched in horror as Kelly dropped his rifle, his determined, steely grin changed into a look of terror as one of the predaliens pushed its tail further into his chest.

"Kelly!", Plaskitt handle whipped the creature in front of him and made for the Major. As the predalien opened its mouth to deliver the final blow, a roar came from behind Plaskitt. Nahkor had seen events unfolding and threw his long spear with deadly precision. It landed in the hybrid's mouth and pierced the back of its head. Kelly and the predalien fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

"You bastards!" Plaskitt, Lee and Bailie unleashed their weapons in a fit of anger. The remaining predalien warriors were turned to pulp by the gunfire and plasma bolts from the Yautja.

The battleground fell silent. The creatures had been destroyed. Nahkor walked over to the body of Major Kelly and knelt over him. It removed the spear from the corpse of the hybrid and placed it at Kelly's side, then finally reached forward and very gently closed his eyes.

The hybrid queen was furious; her babies had been slain by these weak, imperfect beings. She had to teach them a lesson. They had to pay.

She pulled her self away from her egg sac and tore through the doorway; she may not be as large as a pureblood queen but her ferocity and single-mindedness more than made up for it. As she made her way to the surface she immediately saw the interlopers and set her mind on revenge.

The team said nothing. There was nothing to say. The Major was dead; they had lost countless other friends and comrades. In no way, shape or form had this been a success.

Nahkor turned to face the hive to take one last look at the venue for what had been the final battle of his blooding trial. The Chiva was now over for them. He let his glance remain at the doorway too long. He noticed movement inside the hive. A single figure lurked in the darkness. Nahkor clicked his mandibles with impatience and marched toward the doorway with wristblade extended. As the figure came out of the darkness for all to see, Nahkor stopped and remained rooted to the spot. His eyes widened and his face filled with fear. He mustered his composure and ran back to the group. Plaskitt looked toward Nahkor to locate the source of the disturbance, behind Nahkor stood another single predalien. This one was different. It was larger than the others and its head had a horrific crown-like shape to it. Its hostility appeared to be the same. It quickly caught up with Nahkor and was about to strike with its tail when Som'tir burst into view, his long spear extended. He leapt through the air and planted the spear straight into the beast's chest. The hybrid dropped to its knees and grabbed Som'tir. He struggled to free himself but it was in vain as the queen pulled him onto the spike with her. Som'tir roared defiantly in the face of the queen and then fell silent. The queen and the body of Som'tir fell slumped to the floor. Nahkor walked over to the bodies and removed the spear and laid his fallen comrade out as he had done with Major Kelly; a last dignified act for a fallen warrior. Plaskitt pulled out the second hunter's razor disc that was still lodged in the ship and offered it back to Nahkor

Nahkor walked to Plaskitt and Lee, pushed Plaskitt's hand and the razor disc away, places a hand on their shoulders and clicks appreciatively. "Yeah, thanks for the help" replied Plaskitt and placed the razor disc in his pocket.

As the mother ship materialised above Nahkor, he stepped into the tractor field and disappeared. The mother ship then raised into the sky and disappeared into space.

Lee turned to Plaskitt, "I know he saved us and all but he was one ugly motherf…"

Plaskitt cut him off, "let's just go home shall we?"


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight – Back to the Heracles 

As Lee, Bailie and Plaskitt returned to the boarder, thoughts flooded their minds of all that had happened in the space of a few hours. They had lost so many, seen so much destruction. Many soldiers go through their entire career without seeing half of what they had seen in such a short time. Wren was now fully conscious and sat upright on the makeshift bed. Collier was sat at the controls of the boarder. You had to admire their strength, they could have easily bugged out when it had looked bad, they'd have been easily on their way home now making up stories to explain the loss of so many. Instead they had sat in wait, offering them an escape route. Collier wasn't even a soldier and he showed such fortitude in the heat of battle. Kelly would have been proud.

Plaskitt and Lee slumped down onto the makeshift bed. Plaskitt put his head in his hands. "It's over".

Wren eased herself off the bed and faced the others, "Where are the others?"

Lee looked at Plaskitt, "They didn't make it", his voice broken as he fought back tears.

Without a word, the four of them moved into the cockpit.

Wren flicked the engine engage switch, "Ignition is on, lets go home guys"

The boarder lifted off smoothly but jolted violently as they began to climb.

"Shit, what was that?" Lee looked out around the landscape

"The ramp was still down. Sorry. Still a little shaken", Wren closed the ramp by remote. Once the ramp had closed, the boarder steadily made its way up into the morning sky and towards the Heracles and home.

The docking procedure with the Heracles was a swift one, the team were thankful for Wren's aptitude with a spacecraft. As soon as they touched down in the hangar bay, they wearily made their way to the cryo chambers. As the others undressed and bedded down in their tubes, Plaskitt remained dressed and prepared to do a final check before he hit his freezer. It used to be Major Kelly's job. Now it fell to him. Once he was certain that the others were safe and fully under, he began putting the systems into standby.

He ensured the impact shields were primed and that the fire system was operational. The final checks involved securing the dropships. The boarder didn't need securing but he figured he'd take a quick look around before bed.

Everything looked ship shape and ready for docking at gateway station. It was time to close down. Plaskitt switched off the lights and secured the two exits. The ship was now in standby mode. Plaskitt slung his pulse rifle over his shoulder and made his weary way back to the cryo chamber.

As he rounded the corner to the chamber he caught a glimpse of a large figure looming over the cryo tubes containing the sleeping crew.

It was the queen.

It had survived bring impaled by the hunter and had managed to stow away on the boarder. The queen snapped its head round and looked straight at Plaskitt. He froze with fear, managing only to fumble for the door controls. As the creature made its way closer to him the door slid open again and Plaskitt found his feet. He ran down the darkened corridor toward the sublevels as fast as he could, closely followed by the predalien queen.

Plaskitt burst through the open hatchway. He couldn't glance back to check the distance between him and his pursuer, doing so would cost him a good few seconds and he needed every last one of them. Besides, he didn't really want to know. As he launched himself round the next corner he found his progress was marred by an extremely sturdy blast door. The main power was now off, the only supply was used to power the cryo tubes , the door wasn't going to open without power. He was going to have to face this nightmare in the dark. He sank back into the corner of the doorway and readied his pulse rifle. He waited for the slightest sign of movement.

"Come on"; he muttered under his breath; "let's see you".

Shadows flickered across the reinforced steel walls of the corridor and were occasionally forced to recede by the flash of the overhead emergency strobe lighting. Then came the faintest scrabbling sound of metal on metal down the corridor from where he had just been.

"Let's end this" his voice was so quiet it was barely a whisper.

He slowly rose to his feet and made his way to the corner.

As he started to round the corner he saw that the corridor before him was dark but perfectly clear. Then he remembered his last training session with the Major. His words tumbled around Plaskitt's head; "You didn't think that enemies can traverse air vents? You didn't think to check your six before advancing? Or you just didn't think?"

It was behind him!

Plaskitt spun round to find the predalien queen close behind him, it had tried to cut him off using the air vents. He twisted away from its grotesque face as its small inner mouth snapped toward him, the sharp teeth causing a deep gash on his cheek.

"Aaargh! Son of a bitch!", Plaskitt fired his pulse rifle into the creatures abdomen and emptied his entire clip into it. The queen screeched with pain and swiped at Plaskitt, who dodged the attack and continued running down the corridor. The queen gave chase, tail whipping left to right and mandibles flared. Plaskitt realised his mistake too late, he had run down a corridor with to way out; a dead end. He closed his eyes and waited for death. He placed his hands down by his side and suddenly felt the bulge in his pocket, it was the razor disc. He placed it in his hand and readied himself for the fight of is life.

As the Queen rounded the corner, Plaskitt set off in a run toward her, the queen broke into a sprint. For a time, both combatants were in mid-air struggling to subdue the other. The queen swung her tail into Plaskitt and sent him reeling into the wall, he dropped to the floor but quickly regained his senses and jumped to his feet. The beast swung its claws at Plaskitt's torso, he managed to step back but the claws still managed to create two deep gashes across his chest. It swung its tail again as he lunged for its throat with the razor disc in hand, the tail scraped past his cheek and created another deep gash as he landed hard on the queen. He could feel the flesh ripping as the disc cut through the skin, sinew and then bone of the queen's neck. Her screech was finally cut off as the disc tore through the back of her neck and she struggled no more.

This time it was over. The queen was dead.


	10. Chapter 9

3

Chapter Nine – Just Desserts 

The Heracles was in final docking stages at Gateway Station. The Station slowly hung thousands of miles above the Earth. Plaskitt, Lee, Bailie, Wren and Collier sat awaiting the greeting party. Lee offered a comment "It's finally over"

"Not yet it isn't", Collier retorted without looking up from the viewscreen that showed the Earth slowly revolving in the heavens. There's one more monster that needs destroying. "Go with whatever I say, Ok?"

The greeting party joined the five survivors in the loading bay. The most senior officer stepped forward. "Plaskitt, Lee, Wren, Bailie, glad to have you back. Mr Collier I am sorry to hear about your colleagues on the Prometheus. It was unfortunate that…"

Collier snapped "Unfortunate? Unfortunate doesn't quite fit into it. I demand a meeting with all department heads immediately."

The officer was taken aback by this sudden request. "I'll see what I can do but I doubt it very much. They're extremely busy men". His tone was rather sarcastic.

A team of sharp suited men quickly came into the loading bay looking concerned, "Mr Collier, how was your trip?"

Collier nodded to the suits curtly, "fine, thanks.". He turned to the senior officer again, "I want that meeting. Call me when it's done", he handed the officer a business card. With that, Collier smiled at his surprised co-survivors and walked out of the ship surrounded by the suits. The office turned the card over to read the name.

It was Douglas Weyland-Collier

The meeting went ahead as planned. Collier stood in his freshly laundered suit and next to him stood Lee, Plaskitt, Bailie and Wren. Collier's face was stern.

"I see that there is one department head missing. Where's our friend from sector twelve?". Donohue was notable by his absence. "This hearing will continue without him. I have proof that Donohue has been in regular contact with key employees at our registered colonies. He has them in his employ. He is seeking to smuggle an alien specimen to Earth to use for Bio-Weapons research. Not for the company but for his own personal gain. I motion that Donohue be subject to disciplinary action. Due to his absence today, he shows himself as nothing but a coward and we cannot afford to tolerate such weakness in our higher echelons. So I recommend dismissal with immediate effect"

The room erupted with cheers and noises of approval. It was unanimous. Donohue had to go.

Donohue had his suitcase packed and was waiting for the taxi to arrive. The rain was pouring down in torrents. He had to get away. His intercom rang. He ran to answer it, "Hello?"

"Cab for Mr Donohue?"

"I'll be right down"

Donohue grabbed his case and ran down to meet his cab. He threw his case into the boot and jumped into the back seat.

"Where to?" drawled the driver

"Spaceport. And quick" Donohue snapped.

The driver flicked off his for hire sign, turned to Donohue and nodded.

"This won't take long"

Donohue looked at the man. He was pointing a gun at him. Before he had chance to try and persuade him to not shoot him, he fired the tranquiliser dart into Donohue's chest.

Then everything went dark.

Donohue had trouble adjusting his eyes to the light surrounding him. He couldn't move, he must have been strapped down. As he blinked heavily, the round light of a surgical lamp blurred into view. Where was he? Donohue struggled with his bonds but was firmly tied to his bed. He looked to the right. Through the observation window he could see faces. Faces he recognised. There was Van Lewen, the Bio Weapons vice president. Andrew Proctor of the colonial commission. And…

It couldn't be. Sat in the middle, it was a face he hoped he would never see again.

It was the step son of his former employer.

It was Douglas Weyland.

They watched Donohue with some significant interest. He wondered why. Until he looked to his left.

Next to him, on a low table, stood an egg. It was smaller than the eggs he'd seen on the photographs of the hive, but it was unmistakable. It was a facehugger egg.

He turned to the observation window again, pleading with his captors. They could only see the movement of his lips. The glass was too thick.

Douglas Weyland Collier pursed his lips. "Its amazing what you find on expeditions. This particular specimen is a cross breed of our generic xenomorph and the hunter we caught on Marcoma. Particularly vicious."

Collier was going to enjoy this. Donohue had been responsible for the deaths of all those colonists not to mention those marines who had come to rescue him. Major Kelly had been a good friend of his father. Now He was dead and Donohue had to pay.

The egg peeled open and the spider like creature crawled onto the lip. Donohue's screams turned into a sickening gagging sound as the face hugger launched from the edge of the egg and attached itself firmly onto his face.

Collier grinned, "Above all else. Nobody Steals from me."

The rookies lined up in formation at the front of the training zone. They were terrified. Their new Major was a legend and well known for being a hard-ass. They couldn't imagine being as badly injured as he had been and yet be as capable as he is at simply shrugging it off. In particular, the scars that attracted the most hearsay were the slash marks to be found on his chest. Two perfectly straight lines, equal measure apart and done with something so sharp that it equalled a laser scalpel for its cleanness. There were rumours amongst the other soldiers that the marks were proof that he had removed his heart and sold it to the devil, the rookies could see the reasoning behind that.

Major Plaskitt simply refused to die.


End file.
